They spent the weekend introducing themselves to one another. That
Dustin Pedroia moved his clubhouse locker from where he had been since he arrived in 2006 to that occupied by
Jon Lester on pitchers’ row spoke for how teammates felt for the departed hero of two World Series won, but also that the duckboats and the ring ceremonies are now simply glows of a distant fire.
The remaining embers are reminders that this may well be the first team ever to finish last, first and last in successive seasons. Gone are three of the four pitchers who started post-season games. Peering across the field from this weekend were a two ring star center fielder and the shortstop, now a second baseman, who was in the field for
Koji Uehara’s final strikeout. Gone are
Jonny Gomes and
Jarrod Saltalamacchia and
Mike Carp, and when
Clay Buchholz was again lit up by the Yankees, the second straight start in which he allowed seven runs, it was a stark reminder that of those 11 October wins that lifted the trophy, seven were by Lester and
John Lackey and four were by relievers, one of whom (
Felix Doubront), is now a Cub.
The only position players in their same positions are Pedroia,
David Ortiz and
Mike Napoli, and in St. Louis, who were their World Series opponents, with
Yadier Molina out for two months, the only position player in his same position is
Matt Holliday. When the rains had drifted to the Sea of Maine, the Red Sox assured fans that this was not a tear-down, it was a renovation, that while the team that is currently 14
th in the American League in runs, 11
th in homers and 11
th in OPS continues to struggle with the growing pains of
Xander Bogaerts and
Jackie Bradley, Jr.—who were 0-for-8 with five strikeouts Sunday—they now have the cleanup hitters from the three teams with the best records in the game in 2013, Ortiz,
Allen Craig,
Yoenis Cespedes.
“I look at it like this—if we didn’t win Game Six, no one wanted to see
Joe Kelly against
Jake Peavy,” said one coach. But John Lackey did win Game Six, and has been traded for Kelly and Craig.
Hence 2014 is a bridge over troubled waters season for a team that shouldn’t have been as bad as it has played, just as one could argue the 2013 team wasn’t as good as the one that beat Detroit’s bullpen.
John Farrell adamantly says “we’re not in a development place, we want to restore winning to the culture that is here,” and he clearly means it. Ben Cherington, who reasoned that the run made before this last disastrous week was more mirage than charge, says, “if we’re serious about building another team and being as good as we can as quickly as we can, what do we do the rest of the way to do that?”
Clearly, Cherington, Mike Hazen and Farrell did not see immediate middle-of-the-order answers coming out of their farm system. Reality: they have four homers out of left field, three out of center, seven out of right. 14 homers from the outfield. There are 28 players in the American League with more home runs than their outfield, including
Brett Gardner and
J.D. Martinez.
What they do have, however, are skill position players and pitchers. So while this is not spring training, not a time when Farrell and his coaches will reward struggles with “attaboys” and roast marshmallows around a campfire after long nights, they have to figure out what they have and how they use their money and their young talent to fill what needs they have. So Bogaerts moves back from third base, where he seemed to beat himself up, to shortstop. “He is moving better there this weekend than any time at third,” said Brian Butterfield, the tireless taskmaster. They have to determine if
Will Middlebrooks’ struggles are physical, and whether he can be the 25-30 home run hitter Cherington believes he can and will be. They have to see if Jackie Bradley can somehow stay off the play, use the entire field and hit enough to keep his defense on the field; the arms of Cespedes and Bradley together are significant weapons in a home park with a lot of room from the 379 foot mark to the Pesky Pole.
They have to get Cespedes comfortable in Boston and see if his eye-popping physical tools take off. They need to get Craig’s foot healthy and his swing back, because he can really hit. They need
Christian Vazquez to build his relationship with the pitchers and learn from the astute
David Ross. As all that unfurls, they need to keep
Brock Holt leading off and get as many at-bats as possible for
Mookie Betts, and eventually decide where they both are going to play most of their games.
Then, if Bogaerts struggles defensively, they have to decide where he starts next spring training, and whether
Deven Marrero is their shortstop. If Middlebrooks is what he is at this point in his career—and his 162 game average is .248 with a .296 OBP, .744 OPS and 29 homers—will they keep him there and wait to see if and when
Sean Coyle is ready to push him, or let Bogaerts be schooled there for an entire spring training. They can wait for Fort Myers to see how
Blake Swihart,
Travis Shaw,
Garin Cecchini and
Bryce Brentz fit into the longterm plans.
Part of the plan obviously will involve how they can take one of the best systems in the game and wrap packages when and if a
Giancarlo Stanton,
Jason Heyward and/or pitching is available. They have pitching because they have drafted, developed and traded for young pitching. The question, beyond Buchholz’s 6.20 ERA, is who is a keeper, who may be best suited for the bullpen and whom to package, and all that has to be determined before they try to re-sign
Andrew Miller and where there is even a distant hope that Jon Lester
would return and whether
John Henry would consider the 5/6 years and $140M it would take to bring him back. Several of his former teammates, as well as many Orioles folks, believe Miller could well return. Some Red Sox pitchers think Lester is most comfortable in Boston, but most believe there was enough residue from the original offer and his rejection of consideration of re-opening talks as late as his All-star Break charity event that his place in Red Sox history will move elsewhere, like to Yankee Stadium, where he and Ellsbury can show off their rings.
Kelly is a fascinating case, because in the post-season his sinker and remarkable athleticism drew comparisons to a cross between
Tim Hudson and
Billy Swift. But this spring he had hamstring problems, and by his admission “kept trying to make up for my lack of leg strength by overthrowing,” which led to command issues. “Kelly can be a really good third starter,” says one NL GM.
Out of
Rubby De La Rosa,
Anthony Ranaudo,
Allen Webster,
Matt Barnes and
Brandon Workman, they have to see who might be in the rotation and who might be in the bullpen in 2015. They are working with De La Rosa and Ranaudo to add what they believe they need. Webster has to demonstrate that he can slow down his game. According to one scout, Barnes Friday night “had, along with (Minnesota’s
Alex Meyer), the best swing-and-miss fastball I’ve seen all year. 97. Good changeup, curveball really coming.” Barnes struggled out of spring training and until his last two starts didn’t demonstrate that curveball, but he could be a power piece, either starting or closing. That same scout thinks
Heath Hembree will be up and contributing in Boston’s bullpen, soon.
Then there is
Henry Owens, who won 14 games at Portland before moving up, and
Brian Johnson, who leads the Eastern League in ERA and may be the most polished four pitch, 89-94 pitcher in the organization. And the two lefties acquired in the Miller and Peavy deals,
Eduardo Rodriguez (who looked really good Sunday) and
Edwin Escobar. “No other team has four better ceiling, high level lefthanders,” says another American League GM. “They can use two in packages and really get something good, considering the value of lefthanded pitching.”
It all sounds logical, although no one knows what Buchholz will be next season. No one knows for certain which of the Pawtucket Five will be 2015 rotation staples, whether Johnson could sneak into the end of the rotation next spring, when Owens will be ready. No one knows if ownership’s position on multi-year contracts for pitchers in their thirties will preclude a run at
James Shields, or, in a wild dream, Lester. On August 4, there isn’t one pitcher about whom one can say, “he can throw 200 innings.” It’s tough to win without one or two 200 innings horses.
Cherington did a remarkable job beginning the renovations, especially given that there are so few bats on the market this winter. Farrell is right, the players that are here need to win, not promise, because the present is important both to the culture and to the people who pay $135 a seat, $50 for parking and Island Creek prices for concessions. The hunt for good will is not about in house entertainment, it’s about good players and good, competitive teams, and the players they field these last two months have to go from the future to the present, because when Dan Shaughnessy compared the Boston Red Sox to the Kansas City Royals, he spoke for millions more fans in “Red Sox Nation” then they realize in the upper rooms of Yawkey Way, in the Upstairs, Downstairs world of The Olde Towne Team.
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